


forward (and onward)

by lincesque



Series: forget yesterday (remember today) [3]
Category: Captain America (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, M/M, mafia!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-28
Updated: 2012-08-28
Packaged: 2017-11-12 23:34:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lincesque/pseuds/lincesque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James slides easily into Howard’s life, shadowing him, always just half a step behind. He’s intelligent and reliable, and thinks fastest on his feet. He also sets multiple records at the private shooting range Howard keeps on one of the basement levels in the Stark Industries tower, easily besting Peggy Carter, who until James, had been their best marksman, or woman in her case.</p><p>So when Howard introduces him as his new driver slash bodyguard and no one really dares to ask any questions. Well, no one except for Peggy Carter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	forward (and onward)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tehsasu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehsasu/gifts).



> Part threeeeee of IDEK anymore. This one is all Sasu's fault, because he wanted adorable fluff and office romance and food. Or something like that. What he got instead was this overly long, teeth rotting ficlet of hilarious doom. It's more backstory, set kind of directly after 'say it' =3;
> 
> Characterisation. What even.
> 
> Still self beta'd, so forgive all the mistakes *A*;;
> 
> Now time to roll down and get the second half of RBB finished. or something.

Howard recruits Bucky more or less on a whim. He’s impressed by the man’s talents, of course; he hadn’t even known he was being tailed until the last day when one of his prototype facial recognition software (tied in rather illegally to not only the FBI and CIA but also Interpol databases) had pinged him.

At that time, Howard had been out at lunch and had to take a minute, blinking at the notification on his wireless touchpad, before he could gather himself and hack his way into the databases proper to draw out the unsurprisingly large file that had been compiled about his ‘stalker’.

Two hours and another three coffees later, Howard had sat back, duly impressed by the list of accomplishments, for the lack of a better word, that James Barnes had managed to achieve in such a short amount of time. And, as he had snuck another glance at the few pictures that covert operations managed to snap (the man was much too good to be caught for due process), Howard was starting to realise that he definitely wasn’t immune to the draw of that cocky smile and cool grey eyes.

Howard had always liked a challenge but he’s always liked to win even more, so when he offered Barnes a job and Barnes didn’t say no, he’s pleased, but not surprised. However, what does surprise him is what happens next; the rough way that Barnes pinned him against his office wall and kissed him, hot and demanding. It’s something he never saw coming and Howard was intrigued.

Howard had never been touched in such a way before, never had control so easily wrested from him and he’d never thought that letting himself give up his much vaunted control would be so easy, so natural.

He didn’t regret, because he’s a futurist, and he didn’t look back, but when Barnes drew away and smirked at him, all sly pleasure and unruffled composure, almost like Barnes had expected this, expected Howard’s dazed response and capitulation and all of a sudden Howard had to fight the urge to pull him back and make him finish what he started.

But he didn’t, because Howard’s the CEO and genius behind a Fortune 100 company and possibly the most powerful man in New York, with his less legal endeavours, and he didn’t, doesn’t beg. Instead, he straightened his tie, tilted his head and smirked right back.

That was almost two months ago and Barnes has since become James, to Howard, and Bucky to almost everyone else.

James slides easily into Howard’s life, shadowing him, always just half a step behind. He’s intelligent and reliable, and thinks fastest on his feet. He also sets multiple records at the private shooting range Howard keeps on one of the basement levels in the Stark Industries tower, easily besting Peggy Carter, who until James, had been their best marksman, or woman in her case.

Howard introduces him as his new driver slash bodyguard and no one really dares to ask any questions. Well, no one except for Peggy Carter.

Peggy’s not only Howard’s PA at Stark Industries, she also moonlights as one of his most trusted lieutenants in his ‘other’ workplace. Her brilliant tactical mind and top notch organisation skills coupled with her flawless model good looks make her an invaluable asset to Howard. She’s also the only one who takes no crap from him and doesn’t use anything but blunt honesty. It’s a thing they they agreed on the moment Peggy had taken Howard’s job offers.

The first morning Howard walks into the office with James just behind him, at his shoulder, the entire office falls silent. Howard smiles and greets the workers who he passes on the way to his office. Peggy, sitting at the huge sprawling desk just before her office, only looks up when he’s almost before her. When Peggy does look up and takes in the sight of Howard with James barely a step behind, her eyebrows arch almost into her hairline. However, to Howard’s relief, she doesn’t mention a word, merely passing him his usual stack of morning messages.

She says nothing for almost a month, choosing to watch and wait. Howard can feel her eyes on him, on him and James, all the time, until one day she manages to neatly corner Howard at lunch, alone, despite him trying to evade her by canceling his normal lunch outing and eating in his office.

“Raising the bar for your arm candy prerequisites, are you?” She asks, settling into the seat opposite his, across from his desk, and neatly spearing a cherry tomato from his plate at the same time with a fork she produces from god knows where.

Howard thinks that spluttering is a completely undignified action and definitely not one befitting a millionaire CEO of his age and status. But, unfortunately, when Peggy’s word process, it’s exactly what he does. 

Peggy smirks at him knowingly and Howard stares back with his most disapproving frown, an expression that has caused lesser men to scramble from his vicinity. He doesn’t think it works, because it’s Peggy and her expressions are several times more threatening when she wants it to be, but it was worth a try anyway.

“It’s not what you think,” he says instead and gamely tries to keep his food on his plate by moving it closer to his person. Unfortunately for him, Peggy’s fork is basically a weapon in its precision and aim, stealing his lunch forkful by forkful.

“Sure it isn’t,” Peggy replies, meeting his stare with one of her own, her utensil still unerringly stabs directly into the center of his last piece of chicken fillet.

Howard turns his eyes away from her and looks out into wider office area. He catches at least twenty pairs of eyes fixed on his office and once the owners see that he’s watching them back, they all hurriedly turn back to whatever they had been doing. 

Not for the first time, Howard wonders why on earth he chose an open plan design for Stark Industries’ office tower with glass walls for his private office on the top floor. Everyone working or hovering outside, in this case, can see in. Howard does his best to ignore the world.

James takes that moment to saunter in, from the direction of the elevators, deliberately ignoring the speculative and admiring gazes immediately fixed on his person from practically every person on the floor, and strides directly to Howard’s office. He knocks on the side of the open door twice, in a perfunctory manner, before walking in. 

He offers Peggy a nod and a half smirk before the expression softens when he turns to Howard. He takes the few final steps, closing the space between them and stops just to the side of Howard’s chair.

Howard gives a small half grin and wave, feeling like he was fifteen and gangly and completely unsure of himself again. “Hi.”

There’s a snort of suppressed laughter from Peggy’s side, but both James and Howard ignore her.

James’ smile widens and he leans down a little to hand Howard an extremely large cup of coffee from Howard’s favourite cafe and a carefully wrapped sandwich. “Hi,” he says back, voice soft and fond and god, Howard wants to pull James down on top of him and finish what they started that first day.

He doesn’t do that though, instead reaching up for the coffee. 

“Thought you’d be hungry, so I brought back some food for you,” James drawls in his rough voice and Howard almost blushes when their hands touch around the coffee cup. 

James’ gaze sweeps him up and down and his hand, previously on Howard’s shoulder, slides around his back to sweep a few strands of inky hair off the back of Howard’s neck, the action completely hidden to anyone but the two of them and maybe Peggy, with the way she was staring intently at them. 

“I know you’ll be in meetings with Mr. Osborn of Oscorp for the rest of the day about that solar thing, so I’ll run those errands you wanted and then come pick you up after work,” James says, fingers lingering on the nape of Howard’s neck, stroking softly.

Howard raises the coffee to his lips and pretends to drink so that he can have some extra time to make sure his voice won’t squeak when he talks. Unfortunately, “Yeah. Ok,” is all Howard manages even after a long pause.

James’ smile grows and turns pleased, like it does every time Howard loses some of his famed self assurance and his ever spinning train of thought. Like James is happy with the way that he could turn Howard into a stuttering, unsure mess with just a touch or smile and the almost palpable heat in his eyes, attention focused solely on Howard.

James leans forward a little more, effectively shielding Howard from everyone else’s line of sight, and brushes the back of his hand over Howard’s cheek in the briefest of touches. “I’ll send your usual security team to guard you when you’re at the meetings,” James tells him, voice serious. 

Howard thinks that James is taking the possible threat to his person a little too seriously, because after all, how much of a threat were a few letters going to be? Howard knew that he was a high profile public figure and that, coupled with his company being one of the weapons suppliers for the United States armed forces, obviously not everyone was going to like Howard and Stark Industries, not to mention his side job that everyone pretended not to know about. 

Besides, how was he supposed to get anything done with four tall, lumbering ex-marines shadowing his every move? But whilst Howard doesn’t like the thought of people shadowing his every step, keeping a watchful vigil over his shoulder whenever he so much as moved, unless the person is James of course, he hates the disappointed look James gives him when he objects or tries to slip out from under his security team’s watchful eyes even more. So he bites his words back and doesn’t say a thing. 

“I’ll see you soon,” James promises with a wicked smile and this one makes Howard’s flush grow and spread further and wish desperately that he could get away with canceling everything for the rest of the day and making James live up to every single thing promised in that look and more. James either doesn’t notice or pretends not to as he stands and straightens, offering another nod to Peggy before walking out.

Howard resolutely does not look at Peggy or anyone else on the floor through his glass office. Unfortunately, that leaves him with either staring at the sole solid wall like a loon, or staring after James as he leaves the same way he came like an abandoned puppy. He chooses the wall just because he doesn’t want anyone to realise how pathetic he was.

“I feel like I’m about to throw up,” Peggy remarks, finally, almost five minutes later.

Howard spins around in his imported leather chair and glares at her until she raises her hands, “Hey, not about the relationship thing, because you know me better than that. It’s more about the fact you two are almost sickeningly cute and unfairly pretty together.” Peggy shakes her head in mock horror.

Howard can feel his cheeks flush again and when was this his life? He’s arguably the richest and most powerful man in this city and he’s blushing like a fifteen year old schoolgirl and wants nothing more than to bury his face in his hands, but he doesn’t, because he’s still Howard Stark and he faces everything head on. Instead, he straightens his back and meets Peggy’s eyes, directly, unflinching, “Like I said, it’s not what you think.” The words comes out almost convincingly.

Peggy’s eyebrows go up again. “He knows your favourite cafe and how you take your coffee. He has your schedule memorised, down to the people you’re meeting with and what you’re meeting about. And he pets you,” she counts off, raising one manicured finger after another. 

“You let him touch you, willingly,” she says, “and you blushed. Howard Stark, millionaire playboy, blushing and out of words. I never thought I’d see the day.”

Howard scowls but the effect is completely derailed by the fact he is probably flushed and still clutching the oversized coffee cup in both hands like an anchor and shield. 

Peggy’s smile vanishes and her voice lowers, becoming serious. “But most of all, you trust him. It’s been barely a month and you’re trusting him more than you’ve ever trusted some people who’ve worked for you their entire lives.” 

Her gaze is calm, steady and a little hard when she stares him down, “I hope you’re sure about this, Howard. He could become a liability, especially once people start figuring out your connection.”

“We’re not...” Howard exhales loudly and runs a finger over the rim of his cup. “Yes, I know, but you’ve seen his file, you’ve read his history. You know that he’s going to be an asset, a huge asset, to our operations. He’s honourable as well, so once he’s agreed to work with us, which he has, he won’t ever sell us out. No matter what.”

Peggy studies him for a long moment and whatever she sees makes her sit back, contemplative, “And you really believe that.” She shakes her head again and sighs softly, “For both our sakes, but especially yours, I hope that you’re right.”

Howard smiles, it’s such a tiny upward curve to his lips that’s almost unnoticeable. His back is straight, his chin is up and he’s very much the ruthless, calculating businessman who vaulted Stark Industries into a billion dollar defence contractor from almost nothing. 

“I’m never wrong,” Howard murmurs, gaze lingering in the direction that James had gone, “and especially not about him.”


End file.
